These Broken Flippers Won't Fly
by Nachtgeschichte
Summary: Collection of one-shots revolving around Kowalski. Visible difference in his personality – darkish/grey Kowalski. Aftermaths of episodes.
1. Fears of the Mushmellow Meow-Meow

A/N: The aftermath of the episode _Private and the Winky Factory._ PTSD!

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><p><strong><strong>Fears of the Marshmallow Meow-Meow<strong>**

**"Don't eat me!"**

Skipper's eyes flew open as a scream tore the peaceful silence of the night. The first thought that crossed his mind was that maybe another alligator chose the sewage under Marlene's habitat as its new home. And this time it could be a /real/ alligator and not a wannabe Broadway star. However, the piercing shriek was to loud and didn't resemble Marlene's voice. It had to be someone else's.

"What the deuce? War or what now?" Jumping out of his bunk and landing perfectly on the floor, the leader turned towards his men, noticing a shaking...Kowalski?!  
>"A-apologies, Skipper. It, it was me but t-that's nothing. All's fine." The scientist was sitting curled up in his bunk, hyperventilating. "Just a dream...about k-k-killer whales."<p>

Skipper gave the taller penguin a 'you ain't fooling anyone' look: "Oh, let me guess, the name of the orca was Rico, hm?" Kowalski shook his head but Skipper continued: "No? Strange. My guts still tell me I'm right. And you know why I'm right? Because a shiver runs down your long spine every time Rico opens his beak and you freak out when he chokes something up. You're scared that he will do what he did in the factory. Get rid of that childish fear, soldier. Rico is your teammate and-"

**"I can't!"** On wobbly legs Kowalski stood up and shouted into Skipper's beak: "**He swallowed me alive! I thought I was dead! My own teammate swallowed me alive!"** Not receiving a response from the puzzled commander penguin, the analyst headed towards the laboratory. His sanctuary and the place he felt save in. "Not to mention the things I have seen." Mumbling more to himself than to the other avian, he opened the lab door and entered the next room, shutting the door behind him.

Of course, he felt a bit guilty for yelling at Skipper, after all how could the fearless leader of a commando understand something like that. That perfect penguin whose task was to prevent such situations but concentrated on Private's /childish/ mission to save some sweets instead of helping him get out of Rico's beak. Cross out the guilt, Skipper had it coming. The rest of the night passed by as the tall penguin imagined how the captain would feel if they had switched places and he would have been the eaten one.

In the meantime, Skipper made himself some coffee and stirring the fish around his favourite mug, he watched the two other penguins.  
>"Skippah, I think we should help him overcome the fear." Private sighed as he glanced towards the lab door. "It's our fault that he's like that."<br>"Nah, he will be fine...eventually." The leader took a sip of his drink. "And Rico broke Kowalski, so no blame taken." Private tried to protest but Skipper interrupted him.  
>"Instead of piling up objections you could suggest how to fix him. My idea is to throw them both into a box. Either they will make up or they will kill each other."<br>"Uhm, I thought rather about making them talk." Skipper rolled his eyes to that: "Chit-chat has never solved anything."  
>"Kaboom?" Rico, who wasn't really sure what caused all the fuss, not remembering his 'crazy-for-Meow-Meow' state, regurgitated a stick of dynamite. That suggestion wasn't immediately rejected what worried the Brit: "You don't want to dynamite K'walski up, Skippah, do you?"<br>"Of course not, young Private." The commanding officer smirked, placing his mug away. "We'll use a different explosive. Take him out of that can he calls a lab, pronto. It's time for the morning training."

Following Private's request, Kowalski walked out of his laboratory. A suspicious look on his face wandered from one penguin to another, finally stopping on Skipper. They smiled towards him. And when penguins smile towards you, you should start looking for an exit. Joining the rather peculiar circle his team mates made, the scientist asked: "Aren't we supposed to train outside?"  
>"No, the outdoor morning training is canceled due to indoor games, my men deserve it once in a while."<br>Yay, thank you, Skippah!" Private cheered as he thought that playing games was an excellent idea to repair the team spirit and help Kowalski relax in Rico's presence. "Shall I take them out of our storage?"  
>"It won't be necessary, young Private. I already have the fun object we need for this." The previous smirk didn't leave Skipper's beak as the other penguins watched him with curiosity. "The rules are chic simple. It can't leave this room and one penguin can't get it two times." Actually, only Private and Rico were interested in learning what game Skipper had on his mind. After hearing 'fun object', Kowalski already knew that it couldn't be a quiz game.<br>"Hot Potato!" A classical round bomb appeared out of thin air in the room and landed right in Private's flippers.  
>"What?! Everything but that!" The Brit threw it towards Rico, who bounced it like a ball to Skipper. The leader gifted the 'fun object' to Kowalski who welcomed it with a glare.<p>

"Of course..." Panic grew inside the scientist as the bomb started to buzz which seemed like an information that it would soon explode. There was nothing he could do without breaking the rules of the game, so he closed his eyes, still hoping that the bomb would be a dummy.  
>Then suddenly he felt that the weight of the bomb was taken off his flippers. A relief, of course but what...<p>

BOOOOM

BUUUUUURP

Daring a look, Kowalski found himself eye-to-eye with Rico. The weapon expert swallowed the bomb with detonated inside of his stomach. Used to such actions and tricks, nothing happened to the avian, apart from the rather nasty burp...  
>"See, tall boy." Skipper started, waddling towards the ladder because soon Alice would open the gates and they had already wasted enough time on the game. "As long as you're not covered in pink sugar or you don't look like a marshmallow cat, you're save. Case closed. Rico, you lost the game, maintenance duty for you."<br>Rico gave a cry of disappointment as he followed the leader to the surface.  
>Private tried to sum the event up with a nice friendship reference he had learnt from watching the Lunacorns: "What Skippah tried to say was that you need to trust your friends because that's what friends do...friends trust friends...or at least I understood him like that."<p>

Kowalski nodded to that, although the game didn't convince him. However, he could play along as long as they would give him a break and stop nagging him about the problem. All he learnt was to watch his own back and not trust the team boundlessly. Also to avoid playing games with Skipper.


	2. Hang Me Up To Dry

A/N: Takes place immediately after _P.E.L.T_. Also the invention, that is the mindwashing helmet from _Field Tripped. _There are at least 3 ways to interpret it. I may explain them in the next journal entry on DeviantArt. Title inspired by the song _Hang Me Up To Dry_ by Cold War Kids.

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><p><strong>Hang Me Up To Dry<strong>

Placing the cup of tea he had finished on the lab table, Kowalski sighed. It was nice to drink something hot to warm himself up from the inside. After all he had been trapped in that ice block for a quite long time. Still, he knew that sporadic shaking of his body wouldn't leave him any soon and he didn't think that Skipper would agree to allow additional blankets for every member of the team. The scientist knew better not to ask. The commanding officer was surly planning to show them how a real leadership worked. So, it seemed better to keep the beak shut and wait until everything would take its normal route.

Stretching his neck to the side as it felt a bit sore, the penguin sensed someone's eyes burning a hole through him. Actually, he knew whose eyes did that since those two were the only animals in the lab.  
>"I didn't forget about you, don't worry." With a smirk, the analyst didn't even spare a glance towards his 'guest', rumbling through his inventions, tools and lab equipment to finally, with an 'ah-ha!' exclamation, take out a simple hairdryer.<br>"You have to forgive me but for now I'll only melt the ice around your head. For purposes you surly know already. I don't have to explain it to you." Turning on the device, Kowalski approached the ice block in which Blue Hen was frozen. But he didn't stay there for long just placing the hairdryer on a hook to let it do its job. He still had another task to fulfill.

Skipper had insisted that he would destroy the notebook with all the possible scenarios of missions, including the descriptions of the problems and solutions to them. It broke Kowalski's heart to rip in two a work he had burnt many midnight oils on but an order was an order. However, first he had to take out the hidden camera from the cover of the notebook.  
>"Of course I had to control who was using it. A sort of protection from all the villains who weren't creative enough to come up with a master plan by themselves and would cheat by checking my work. Such a disgrace for the villain race." Kowalski chuckled at the rhyme and let the small camera fall on the counter. It was greeted with a grumble behind his back, indicating that the ice around Hen's beak already melted.<p>

"T-t-t-t-that's why he came b-b-b-b-b-back. Not because of t-t-t-t-the mug b-b-b-b-but you t-t-t-t-told him it was me." The chicken inquired, her beak shudder because of the cold.  
>"Why should I? I won't deny that it was quite entertaining to see him run around, trying to pick the pieces of his ego. And he is indeed sentimental. He wouldn't keep me around if he wasn't." Reaching for the brainwashing helmet, Kowalski once again came closer to her, continuing his explanation:<br>"Just to be sure he would come I left him a memo that he should collect his belongings as soon as possible. Do I really have to tell you that? By now you should have figured it out on your own." He sounded disappointed and he believed to have all rights to sound like it. Honestly, he expected more from her.  
>"N-n-n-never thought you could be t-t-t-t-that paranoid." The helmet was placed on her head but not turned on. Also the hairdryer changed its position – from the hook down to her feet, still blowing the hot stream of air.<br>"If it cheers you up, I can tell you in secret that sometimes science lets me down too."

Blue Hen wasn't aware of the dark strains on Kowalski's personality. After spending a fair share of his life in Skipper's team, the scientist had to develop certain traits, like becoming paranoid. But it was a silent paranoia, an invisible one. Just like the strings he was pulling on.  
>Sending the lady a final smirk, Kowalski bowed nonchalantly and with the notebook in his flipper he went to the boiler-room, leaving the hairdryer on and the helmet off.<br>He would sit by the fire and throw the pages of the notebook into the flames. The masterpiece he was really proud of as he had needed something from an evil genius to write the list of possible problems. Also enough patience to listen to Skipper's conspiracy theories. The wicked side of their minds hadn't let him down.

One by one, to make sure every page would be burnt down like it should - to the ashes. No exceptions. It would take him a good hour or two. By the time he would get out of the boiler-room, Blue Hen would be long gone, planning her next revenge. Of course she would take the mindwasher with her, not predicting that it wouldn't have worked anyway since Kowalski didn't want to lose the opportunity to face another brain challenge. Just following the plan and fulfilling the orders.


End file.
